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| A set of hanafuda cards |
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The name Yakuza meaning Japanese gangsters comes from "893"(yattsu, ku, san). This name originates from a cardgame called oichokabu (おいちょかぶ), which is usually playedwith a deck of hanafuda (花札) "flower cards". (A normal deckof cards can also be used if the Kings, Queens, and Jacks are removedand the aces are regarded as 1).
A player's score in this game is decided by adding the scores onseveral cards and using only the smallest digit. Because 8 + 9 + 3 =20 = 0 points, "8-9-3" means "no points". So the original meaning ofyakuza (ya for yattsu, eight, ku for "nine" andza for san, "three" was "no points" or "useless". Later,this meaning changed to "useless people" or "gamblingpeople".[1]
See also What are Japanese number puns? for how Japanese uses words as mnemonicsfor numbers.
Acknowledgements
Edited from posts by Jack Oatmon, KATOH Motoshi andKoji Kawakami.
References
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